What is a good book/ series to recommend to a teen guy in highschool?

Catch 22.

Ender’s Game

@YoKoolAid Lots of people have suggested Ender’s game. What is so good about it?

The Catcher in the Rye

If you like science fiction, I would suggest the World War II series by Harry Turtledove. He also does a lot of alternate history stuff which is great too. I would also suggest George RR Martin, S.M. Stirling and Terry Pratchett.

1984
Slaughterhouse Five
Brave New World

10th Grade by Joseph Weisberg

that link has a preview of a lot of the book

I liked the Lord of the Rings.

I was reading Tolkien, Michael Moorcock, and Alan Dean Foster in high school. Those are all sci-fi and fantasy, though.

Ooh, Robert Cormier. He wrote books with protagonists in your age group, and believe me, he didn’t sugarcoat nothin’!

You’re at the age where some books with deeper themes might be good. Try some Richard Wright, Umberto Eco, Kurt Vonnegut, Zadie Smith or Neil Gaiman.

A wonderful historical series that isn’t soap-y is the Masters of Rome by Colleen McCullough. Great scholarship for the time they were written and she brings up a lot of stuff that gets one thinking“What makes a good person? A good leader?” My favourite is The First Man in Rome, which is about the general and consul Sulla. ‘e was a right bastard, ‘e was, but a fascinating one.

I second Terry Pratchett. It’s good amusing fantasy.

Personally, I read HP Lovecraft in high school. It’s weird and, to quote a title of one of his volumes, “tales of horror and the macabre”. It’s great and surreal :)

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone is good too, for historical fiction.

Someone mentioned Neil Gaiman and his book with Pratchett, Good Omens is great.

My son loved Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.

Try S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, Neil Gaiman as mentioned above

You classify HHG as “adventure”? Hmmmm. How deeply are you into reading? My son read Lemony Snicket in JH, now he’s into demons and wizards. The Bartamaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud comes to mind. Try that.

I’ll chime in and back the suggestion of the Dark Tower series along with these:

On a Pale Horse- Piers Anthony
Dune chronicles

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. It’s gritty fantasy with lots of violence.

If you do like fantasy look into R. A. Salvatore or Jennifer Roberson (Sword-Dancer series or Chronicles of the Cheysuli).

I second Neil Gaiman. I really enjoyed Stardust.

I also recommend Eragon by Christopher Paolini. The movie was terrible but the book series is great.

Since you like mystery, I would say to check out the other Dan Brown books: Digital Fortress and Deception Point. They were easy, fun reads.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach

Anything written by Philip K. Dick.

with a name like that ^^, he’s got to be good.

Mistborn by Brian sanderson for some coot thaumapunk action
Shannara by Terry Brooks for that budding environmentalist that wants to be an elf
Wheel of Time for the fact that it’s one of the best constructed worlds EVER. PERIOD.

I’m tempted to say Twilight just to be an ass.

I agree with Ender’s Game. As for what’s so great about it… read and find out! :D

I also second George R.R. Martin, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Vonnegut, Lovecraft, Stephen King and Philip K. Dick. Also, I’m not overly fond of Colleen McCullough’s other stuff that I’ve tried, but I did really like The First Man in Rome.

Other recommendations so far that I have opinions on: Tolkien can be so tedious to read but the stories are wonderful. The Catcher in the Rye is just about the worst fucking book ever written, IMO; you have to read it at the right point in your life to appreciate it, and I didn’t. I love 1984 as much as I hate Catcher. I love The Outsiders almost as much as I love 1984.

I’d recommend Clive Barker. His stuff is so dark and twisted that even the stuff he’s written for kids is more than suitable for older readers. I love his Abarat series.

Christopher Moore. I read my first book by him (A Dirty Job) not very long ago and I promptly hopped on Amazon and added everything else that he’s written to my wish list. Wonderful dark humor. Chuck Palahniuk is also a dark humor writing god.

Joe Hill. (He’s Stephen King’s kid!) I like his short stories a bit better than his longer fiction, but he’s still definitely worth reading. The same goes for Bentley Little (who is not SK’s kid, but SK does like his stuff).

Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files series is excellent. I can’t say enough good things about it. They’re urban fantasy about a wizard who works with the Chicago PD when supernatural crap pops up. The first book was almost called “Semi-Automagic,” which really captures the essence of it, I think. The plots never drag, the twists and turns are actually surprising most of the time, and the character development over the course of the series is pretty exceptional.

If you’re into comics and graphic novels at all: Watchmen, Maus, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

And, of course, you can never go wrong with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

It would depend on the child in question. If you liked Hitchhikers try Kurt Vonnegut or Phillip Dick.

My son loved the Xanth stories of Piers Anthony at that age.

If your son liked Piers Anthony, you should get him this book by Piers: ”Macroscope.”
I think it is by far his best ever…

forgotten realms… and dragonlance….eye of the world by Robert Jorden

If you liked Hitchhikers, try Starship Titanic. I liked Night Trains when I was in high school.

David Eddings. They were my favorite books at that age. They are fast reads, but very good. Great detail, great story, great everything.

I’ll third Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. The Gunslinger (1st book) is quite simply my favorite book of all time. If you want to try a great classic you can finish in one afternoon, try “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway. Very, very good.

re: Hemingway – Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! XD

Isaac Asimov’s robot books

No Hemingway @MacBean ? Why, oh why? I can see why it might not be for everyone. I’m just naturally curious about a differing opinion (I blame Gonzaga =p ).

I’m not exactly sure why. Something about his style makes me want to poke my eyes out but I’ve never been able to pinpoint what that “something” is.

Maybe it’s the lack of commas? I personally like that he can tell a story with a fraction of the words that others would take to tell it. Believe me though, I can tell what you mean though.